Karzai Adamant on a Strong Presidency for Afghanistan

The constitutional convention completed its 17th day Wednesday with President Hamid Karzai refusing to budge on his demand for a strong presidential system. But the moujahedeen and fundamentalists at the loya jirga, or grand assembly, threatened to walk away unless the presidency was diluted.

The 500 delegates were expected to vote today on at least eight issues that have divided the assembly. One would establish Uzbek as Afghanistan’s third national language, behind Pashto and Dari. Another would ban future Cabinet ministers, the president and the head of the central bank from holding dual citizenship, a key issue because many of the Afghans who have returned to help in the country’s reconstruction effort have Western passports.

So far, 140 of the 160 constitutional articles have been ratified without problem, but the major issues remain unresolved. Local leaders are demanding that at least three vice presidents be appointed and that most of the president’s powers be subject to parliamentary approval. That would give ethnic minorities such as the Uzbeks, Tajiks and Hazaras greater representation.

Karzai was having none of it.

“There won’t be any deals on Afghanistan’s system of government, neither with jihadi leaders nor with anyone else,” he said, referring to the northern factional warlords who stand to lose the most from a strong, centralized government. “There will not be any deal on Afghanistan’s future stability or security.”

At one point this week, the deputy chairwoman of the grand assembly did what any Afghan politician would do during a moment of crisis: announce a poetry reading session. As the Afghans murmured appreciatively -- and international observers looked on in bafflement -- delegates queued at the microphone to indulge in a bit of literary whimsy.

One enthusiastic representative from the southern city of Kandahar even read an ode to Karzai: “He is asking the world for help, and we should not shy from our duty to help him....”

But it did not temper the mood of the delegates.

“The situation is getting out of hand,” said Zaidullah Haidery, from Wardak province. “I’m afraid some physical violence may happen. There are further and further divisions between the delegates.”

Frustrated at the fractious nature of the debate, Sibghatullah Mojaddidi, the normally good-humored chairman of the loya jirga, walked out this week nearly in tears and had to be coaxed by Cabinet ministers into returning.

Mahmood Sulaimankhal, a delegate from the eastern province of Paktia, blamed the divisions and delays on former President Burhanuddin Rabbani and fundamentalist warlord Ustad Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, who would be among those losing out under a strong presidential system.

“The people who are working for the benefit of the country will be the winners. Through 25 years of conflict, these people ruled our country.”

During the many tea breaks, delegates complained that the Cabinet ministers were bribing them with gifts of cash, chapans (traditional Pushtun overcoats), mobile phones and kebab dinners in an attempt to persuade them of Karzai’s point of view. Many delegates also criticized the Cabinet, which is unelected, of heavy-handed interference.

“This draft constitution does not reflect the wishes of the people,” said Mullah Abdurahman, of the northern province of Badakhshan. “It is controlled by outsiders.”

Rabbani and Sayyaf are also lobbying for the amendment preventing members of the Cabinet, the president and the chief of the central bank from having dual citizenship.

Such a move would in effect bar most of the Cabinet ministers -- who have been educated abroad -- from running for office in the elections in June.

One exile who has returned from the United States to work in the president’s office said it would be a disaster for the reconstruction of Afghanistan if the officials were barred.

“The diaspora have been educated in America and Europe and are Westernized. Our skills are needed because there are very few skilled people in this country,” he said.

“But most of us are also liberal. Those who have been left behind, many of them Islamists and moujahedeen, do not want us to participate in our government.”